Australia is going to vote on same sex marriage shortly. The island of Jersey has already decided to go ahead with the project, but has just got stuck on a question it hadn’t given any thought to before the vote?

‘Who is the real parent of a surrogate child procured to embellish a same sex marriage’?

The trick of using a wooden horse to capture the city of Troy may have happened 3,000 years ago, but the strategy of using ‘a wooden horse’ to persuade a group of people to accept something that appears friendly but which will instead cause them harm, has been copied ever since.

Who can be against two people being in love and living safely together for the rest of their lives? Who can be against the lovely idea of ‘marriage equality’-two such beautiful words. The trouble is, other more dangerous things lurk inside the rainbow wooden horse.

Let’s look and see what they turned out to be – what we have welcomed into the city smuggled inside?

We have taken away the rights of children to know their biological parents. Usually in our culture, we put vulnerable children before the interests of grown-ups. Not anymore. The rights of the children are removed so the adults get to ‘feel’ like the family they can never be. Because the child has been procured by a surrogate parent- their real parent – and is now denied access to their real mum or real dad; for ever. Who IS the real parent? The biological parent of child; or the adult who paid for the child to be conceived by someone else?

We have taken away the rights of children raised in monotone relationships to relate to a mother and a father, so that they grow into balanced adults with experience of both biological genders. Children in the United States raised by same sex couples have been complaining. Katy Faust was raised by two lesbians and testified in court about the damage this did to her:

“Now we are normalizing a family structure where a child will always be deprived daily of one gender influence and the relationship with at least one natural parent,” she explains. “Our cultural narrative becomes one that, in essence, tells children that they have no right to the natural family structure or their biological parents, but that children simply exist for the satisfaction of adult desires.”

In my years of counselling both in and out of university life, I found so much damage was inflicted on children who lacked emotional, psychological or physical access to one of their biological parents. The levels of mental distress and anxiety are rocketing in our culture, and we plan add to their pressures in the name of equality.

Who would ever vote against free speech and democracy? The rainbow wooden horse is setting out to maim both.

Tim Farron and Jacob Rees- Mogg are just the latest two most prominent politicians to be told by the media that they had no right to be in public service because they failed to support the monochrome marriage project. Farron resigned. Jacob Reese-Mogg is living under a hail of rancid abuse and hate speech. How is it ok for the supporters of gay marriage to try to terrorise public figures to abandon their views using hate speech; “Bigot” screamed the Guardian headlines at Rees-Mogg the next day. But hypocritically they insist anything that fails to fully support them constitutes actual hate speech and must be suppressed.

The rainbow wooden horse will attack businesses unless they fall into line. Ask the Ashers bakery in Northern Ireland who while willing to serve any customer of any kind, refused to lend their artistry to the rainbow horses’ propaganda. This wasn’t even a casual order. It was a set-up job, intended to damage a young heterosexual couple’s business, and terrify anyone else who might think of sticking to their own principles.

Freedom of conscience? No, the rainbow horse has that in its sights too. Of course, the politicians promised opt outs and freedom of conscience to people who objected. But then oops, changed their mind. Listen to Dame Louise Casey threaten the Roman Catholic community unless it gets into line; “No it’s NOT OK for Catholic schools to be homophobic and against gay marriage.”

Freedom of religion? Equalities minister Justine Greening insists churches must be MADE to “keep up with modern attitudes.”

Ofsted used to just be about maintaining educational standards. Not anymore. Now it has become the rainbow horses’ enforcer. Before the ‘redefinition’ of marriage Vishnitz Jewish Girls schools passed with flying colours. After, it was failed; for having an “inadequate promotion of homosexuality and gender reassignment.”

Does the rainbow horse stand for equality and inclusion? Not if you are a volunteer for the National Trust? There it stands for bullying and exclusion. With a membership of 4.2 million, the instructions went out in their name to the 62,000 volunteers who would all be compulsory required to wear the same-sex promotional rainbow badge. Anyone who said they would find that a problem was shoved out of sight; made invisible, until they were willing to give in and show ‘inclusive tolerance’; unlike the National Trust itself which itself practiced exclusive intolerance – in the name of the rainbow wooden horse.

Why is this so? A very good question. That it is so, tragically a matter of fact.

Same sex marriage? Equality and safety for all under the law? Apparently not. Check out the small print. Peek inside the rainbow wooden horse.